Sunday, July 22, 2012

I have been thinking about getting a tablet for my kids for a while now. My rationale is to provide them access to online learning materials whenever they need and to get on video conference call with me whenever I travel.

We do have a PC at home for them to use. But they have been banned from using the home computer for quite sometime now. Reason for the ban is because they will spent too much time on YouTube and online gaming. There was no way to control what they can do on the PC.

Hence, the tablet. With an Android tablet (not sure if it is possible to do that on an iPad) I can set a PIN for each app to lock and prevent it from launching.

So, my idea is to lock all the apps with a PIN and only allow the apps I choose to launch without the PIN.

That way I can lock the web browsers but allow them access to the Wikipedia app or any other educational apps I install for them.

So, the question is which tablet to get for them. Right now I am leaning towards the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Plus 7 inch version. Alternatives are the Nexus 7 or even the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Still can't decide yet. Will wait and see.

Btw, that app to lock other apps is called Perfect AppLock. Go check it out.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 in June for the wife. Got it at a very good price.

Of course, I got to test it out first. It was only just recently that I got myself the S2. I really liked it. Especially the Android OS. I found it to be so much more flexible than the iOS. IMHO, the S3, like the Galaxy Nexus, has the perfect screen size for a smart phone.

April was a pretty busy month. I took the boys camping at Jerangkang Waterfall in Pahang state together with my friends. Suffice to say that is was part of my annual all-male friends trip to somewhere. (Last year's was to Terengganu for sotong or squid fishing.)

It was a fun trip for Joel and Jordan. It was their first trip camping and hiking. Build their first fire too. Posted some photos of the trip here.

Have not been posting since April. That same month I decided to start updating my blogs from my mobile phone. I downloaded a mobile app called Blogger-droid. Was pretty pleased with it; that is until I found out about it's highly intrusive mobile ads system. And I mean irritatingly so.

Uninstalled it and have not been blogging since. The funny thing was that I was not aware that Google had a mobile app for Blogger. I remembered searching for it in the marketplace but it was not available. Not sure why.

Anyway, long story short, I found it today. Hence this post. So, here is another attempt to kick-start my blog updates.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Was up till 4 am this morning on my PlayStation 3 checking out the new Skyrim update. Had to delete the game data and reinstall the game as the latest patch seemed to cause the game to freeze and hanged the system whenever the character entered water.

After the reinstallation, my quests went pretty well.... lol. And as usual before I know it, it was 4 am.

Well that was why I got up late. Now back to the Dr Who sonic screw driver. When I came downstairs, Joel was excitedly telling me that he made a sonic screw driver. I must say that it looked pretty good considering the fact that it was made from paper and cellophane tapes. I decided to spray it with silver paint to give it a metallic look.

Joel, Jordan and Jodene have been Dr Who fans for the longest time. I introduced them the show a couple of years back. I myself have been a fan since I was a teenager when I watched a couple of episodes on the television broadcasted by the Brunei TV station. I used to stay in Miri, Sarawak, where we could received their broadcast; and then continued with the series on PBS when I studied in Canada.

Anyway, I interviewed Joel in the following video.

I am actually looking forward to see what my kids will come up with next.

Maybe I will give them some additional art and craft items to see what they will fabricate... lol.